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The oceangoing sealifts by which the equipment, buildings,
and other facilities were transported by barge to Prudhoe Bay
occurred in the 1970's and early 1980's.
By July of 1984, construction, transportation, and
installation costs of the wells, the equipment, the buildings,
the pipelines, and the other facilities installed at the Prudhoe
Bay field reflected, as indicated, a total capital cost to the
oil companies of approximately $11 billion. The facilities
included 645 wells drilled on 37 drilling sites, 980 acres of
pits, 800 miles of above-ground pipelines, 3 flow stations, 3
gathering centers, a central power station, a central compressor
plant, a base operations center, electrical lines and associated
poles, switchgear, transformers, and an offshore seawater
treatment plant completed in 1983 and connected to the mainland
by a gravel causeway.
Pump Station No. 1, the access or entry point from which oil
flows out of the Prudhoe Bay oil production facilities and into
TAPS, and a segment of the above-ground portion of TAPS lie
within the geographical boundaries of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.
Portions of the Endicott and Kuparuk pipelines, which transport
crude oil from neighboring oil fields to Pump Station No. 1 for
entry into TAPS, also traverse the Prudhoe Bay oil field. In
many areas, the Endicott, Kuparuk, and Prudhoe Bay pipelines are
physically indistinguishable and run alongside each other,
supported above the tundra by the same VSM’s.
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